System thinks PC is part of business network - it isn't

Win10 AU v 1607. This is a PC I bought from HP (which might explain everything!).

The "Join a Domain or Workgroup" option claims my PC is part of a business network. It is not and never has been. Changing the option to be a home computer does not stick. I can select it but it goes away the next time I look. the "Change privacy options" function also claims that some options are managed by my organization.

I'm not sure that any of this is causing my problems but it seems a bit strange to me. I've been using this PC for more than a year and it has always been claiming it is in a business network.

Should I just ignore this?

Curiously,
Larry

Can you do this: click Start > Settings > System > About and then select Disconnect from organization.

John,

There is no option like that. Here's what I see at the top of the About page:



My Workgroup is called WORKGROUP. Don't know why it says my Organization is WORKGROUP.

There is a link to connect to work or school but I don't want that so I haven't clicked it.

-- Larry

Ok, try changing the workgroup name to something else.

How to Change Workgroup in Windows 10

I suppose my other windows computers will not be able to share with this one after I change the workgroup name. Right?

If everything is working perfectly today, then maybe you don't want to mess with it...

larrymcg said:

The "Join a Domain or Workgroup" option claims my PC is part of a business network. It is not and never has been. Changing the option to be a home computer does not stick. I can select it but it goes away the next time I look.

Some confusion here, I think. You have gone to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System and clicked 'Advanced system properties' then the 'Computer name' tab. Here it says 'To use a wizard to join a domain or workgroup click Network ID'.

The wizard is not showing you what the current status is, it's asking you what you would like it to become. It has to offer one or the other option as default, it happens to be the business one that's pre-selected - that's all.

As for the 'Organisation WORKGROUP' - 'organisation' is just the word MS chose as best(?) describing anything you may want to 'join'. The word is hard-coded into Settings and says the same thing whatever your network settings are, for Home or Pro.

'Some settings are managed by your organization' - I get that on my PCs, Home and Pro. As they were all upgraded to 10 from 7, I suspect the particular policy setting triggering that message was inherited from the previous OS. So far I haven't tracked down which one it is, but as nothing seems to be 'greyed out' in Settings and everything seems to be working I haven't tried too hard.

John and Bree,

Since things are working OK (as far as I can tell) I think I will just continue on the way things are.

Thanks for the clarifications,
Larry

John Galt said:

If everything is working perfectly today, then maybe you don't want to mess with it...

The problem isn't with home networking using WORKGROUP without Homegroup (which is necessary for a home network with Linux machines) but it is with group policies that Windows 10 enforces on "organizations" that are home networks. There is apparently no way to have a non-Homegroup home network that retains sovereign home computer policies. All kinds of privacy settings are made unavailable when Windows 10 enforces organizational policy administration for an organization that does not exist.